Unlike many people I pay off my credit card in full every month. Yesterday there was this interesting graphic on Credit Sesame that provided great detail on our massive credit card debt. It varies by state but the average adult in the USA has over $5,000 in revolving credit card debt.
With people like me paying off their card every month skewing the average, my guess is that most people have balances north of $10,000. While that is bad, what is worse is that these people are paying extremely high interest rates in excess of 25% in many cases. That is probably why one of the most popular forms of loans on peer to peer lending platforms is debt consolidation. You use the loan to pay off the high credit card debt and leave yourself with a more manageable monthly payment.
Peter Renton is the chairman and co-founder of LendIt Fintech, the world’s first and largest digital media and events company focused on fintech. Peter has been writing about fintech since 2010 and he is the author and creator of the Fintech One-on-One Podcast, the first and longest-running fintech interview series. Peter has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, CNN, Fortune, NPR, Fox Business News, the Financial Times, and dozens of other publications.